Air New Zealand is set to increase frequencies from their home hub Auckland International Airport to Denpasar, Bali, several weeks earlier than its original peak season plans.

An Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9. Photo: Darren Koch via Wikimedia

What are the details?

.Auckland – Denpasar. Source: GC Mapper

As reported by Routes Online, the frequency bump will be as follows below. There are some additional increased frequencies over the summer (winter in the case of New Zealand) period.

  • 11th of April 2019 – 30th of May 2019 - Twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday
  • 1st of June 2019 – 17th of June 2019  - Three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
  • 19th of June 2019  – 29th of June 2019 - Four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday
  • 30th of June 2019 – 1st of August 2019 - Every day but Thursday
  • 3rd of August 2019 – 16th of September 2019 - Four times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday

The actual flight schedule is as follows:

Outbound flight number: NZ065

Departing Auckland 1100 AM

Arriving Denpasar 1620 PM

Inbound flight number: NZ064

Departing Denpasar 1750 PM

Arriving Auckland 0530 AM the following day

The service is operated by an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9, at peak season six days a week apart from Thursdays. This is one more day than the 2019 summer season.

What is the service like onboard?

This route is operated by an Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9. There are three classes onboard; Business Premier, Premium Economy, and Economy.

The Business Premier cabin features 18 lie-flat seats in a 1-1-1 configuration, allowing maximum privacy but lacking any couple seating. Each seat has an 11-inch touch screen for entertainment, in-seat power (both outlet and USB), and noise-canceling headphones. Business passengers can also order food through their entertainment screen outside of mealtimes.

Air New Zealand
Business Premier on Air New Zealand. Photo: Air New Zealand.

The Premium Economy cabin has three rows of seats with 41 inches (104cm) of pitch. They are laid out in a 2-4-2 configuration. Premium economy actually has the same sized screen as Business Premier and in-seat power.

Economy is in the standard 3-3-3 layout with 31 inches of pitch. There are 263 seats in the economy cabin and it is rather unremarkable. The entertainment screen is only 9-inches wide and each seat has in-seat power.

There is also a fourth very unique seating option onboard the Boeing 787-9; the Economy Skycouch. Essentially if a passenger (say a family group) purchases three economy seats on a row on the window side, they can actually convert their entire seat selection into a couch. The sky couch seats have an additional long footrest that extends flat, filling the footwell of the seat.

Air New Zealand
The Economy Sky Couch onboard Air New Zealand. Photo: Air New Zealand

This feature has been proven to be very popular for couples, families and those who just want plenty of extra space. Whilst it is technically a lie-flat seat, it is unclear if its cheaper for one passenger to buy three economy seats with sky couch or to simply upgrade to business class.

Air New Zealand operates 13 Boeing 787-9s and has a single aircraft yet to be delivered by Boeing. They also have a new fleet of Boeing 787-10s on order.

The schedule information in this article was originally published by Routes Online

What do you think of this increase in frequencies? Let us know in the comments below!